Celtic win race to land Manchester United defender Tyler Blackett and Inverness Caley midfielder Ryan Christie could follow

Tyler Blackett will join Manchester United on a season-long loan deal
Blackett was wanted on loan by West Brom, Real Sociedad and Valencia
Ronny Deila is closing in on a deal to sign Inverness Caley’s Ryan Christie
It’s not too late to sign up to MailOnline’s Fantasy Football game

John Mcgarry For The Scottish Daily Mail

Published:
23:38 GMT, 28 August 2015

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Updated:
23:38 GMT, 28 August 2015

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Ronny Deila is poised to ease his Euro heartache by landing Manchester United defender Tyler Blackett on a season-long loan on Saturday.

And the Norwegian looks set to add a second name to his squad before the transfer window closes after a £500,000 bid for Inverness Caley’s attacking midfielder Ryan Christie was tabled on Friday night.

Blackett, an England Under 21 international, has played 11 times for the United first team and can also boast loan spells at Blackpool and Birmingham.

Manchester United defender Tyler Blackett is closing in on a season-long loan move to Celtic

Blackett made 11 first-team appearances during his breakthrough campaign but is yet to feature this year

Celtic manager Ronny Deila is closing in on two new signings, with Ryan Christie set to follow Blackett

At 6ft 2in, the 21-year-old looks to be a natural replacement for Virgil van Dijk should the Dutchman move to Southampton next week, although he can also play at left back.

It’s believed Celtic hope to negotiate a £4million ‘first refusal’ buy-out clause as part of the deal.

The move for SFWA young player of the year Christie is not quite as advanced although it’s widely anticipated the deal will be finalised over the weekend.

Celtic are prepared to sweeten the pot by letting the 20-year-old return to the Highlands for the rest of this season on loan before fully taking him under their wings last summer.

The twin signings will be welcomed by a support still smarting from the loss to Malmo in the Champions League qualifiers on Tuesday.

Celtic will now face Ajax, Fenerbahce and Molde in the Europa League as they seek to atone in some way for their 4-3 aggregate loss to the Swedes.

But Deila believes another crack at the secondary European tournament merely underscores the true standing of his squad after 15 months in the job.

‘If you see the size of the club, if you look at the history – it is a Champions League club,’ Deila stated. ‘But right now we have a Europa League team. That is how it is.

Inverness Caley’s attacking midfielder Christie is expected to follow Blackett to Celtic Park

‘We know if we play at our best we can go into the Champions League and be at the group stages. We were very close but we were not good enough in the last match. In small details, we were not good enough.’

Although the draw offers an element of glamour thanks to Robin van Persie’s summer switch to Fenerbahce and intrigue in the shape of a return to Norway for Deila to face Molde, the Celtic boss admits that it will take time for the pain of Malmo to ease.

‘It is not going to lessen the pain,’ he added. ‘We are disappointed we didn’t go through because that was one of our big goals but that is how it is.

‘It was a good draw. All three are going to be good but Ajax and Fenerbahce are bigger clubs and they have big supports, so there will be three big clubs in the group.

Celtic have been drawn in the same group as Robin van Persie’s Fenerbahce, Ajax and Molde

‘Yes, of course, we have a good opportunity to go through but there are some tough teams in there. We will need to perform well.’

Van Dijk retains his place in Deila’s squad for Saturday’s game with St Johnstone despite Southampton finalising an £11m bid.

Ahead of the transfer window closing on Tuesday, though, Deila admits this afternoon might well be the Dutchman’s last game in a Celtic shirt.

‘Nothing has changed,’ he said. ‘It will be good for him and for us that this finishes on September 1 so we can move on.

Virgil van Dijk is in contention to face St Johnstone despite Southampton’s attempts to sign the defender

‘He has a contract here and we want to keep him. We don’t need to sell him.

‘I know there is interest from different clubs so that’s positive.

‘It’s normal that he’s thinking about what his options are but he’s happy here. He knows he has a fantastic club but he is also seeing if these other options could take his career to another level.’